Friday, 17 October 2008

Machete man asks me for money...

Harry Hutton writes...

...so I'm walking down the street in Managua when a guy with a machete asks me for money. Lots of people walk around with machetes in Central America, even in the cities, and lots of people ask for money; but I've never had the things combined before. He is not a mugger, merely a mendicant with a fruit knife, so I ignore him, and cross to the fashionable side of the street. Then I can't find the hotel so I stop to ask the way. Wait, they say, the owner is over there; we'll get him for you. This "owner" is an obvious criminal, very ugly, who tries to get me to go round the corner with him. I could have outwitted them by asking why, if he owned the hotel, could he not afford front teeth. Not as stupid as I look. In fact, very few people are as stupid as I look. Just then a taxi pulls up, which I'd have been a c*** not to take. As we pull away I want to shout an insult out of the window, but am not sure if it is safe to do so. Had it been High Wycombe, where I know my way around, I would have done. It's a question of knowing the terrain...follow the comments...

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